Assessment Of Patients With Lyme Infection

莱姆病是一种由螺旋体伯氏疏螺旋体感染引起的多系统疾病，是美国主要的媒介传播疾病。莱姆病在欧洲也很常见，也发生在俄罗斯、中国和日本。在人类中，伯氏疏螺旋体感染主要引起皮肤、神经系统、心脏和关节的感染。莱姆病通常可以通过抗生素治疗成功治疗，在疾病早期患者中效果最好。不幸的是，一些患者可能对治疗没有完全的反应。我们目前有三个临床方案研究莱姆病患者。两项协议是自然历史研究，并作为多种调查的基础。一项方案针对治疗后的莱姆病综合征患者。另一种方案允许研究经典莱姆病患者。第三个方案将使用微阵列检查移动性红斑病变患者皮肤活检中的宿主反应。我们的工作涉及莱姆病的3个领域：实验室诊断、临床表现和对伯氏疏螺旋体的免疫反应。

Lyme disease is a multisystem illness caused by infection with the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi and it is the leading vector-borne disease in the United States. Lyme disease is also common in Europe and also occurs in Russia, China and Japan. In humans, B. burgdorferi infection causes infection primarily in the skin, nervous system, heart and joints. Lyme disease can usually be treated successfully with antibiotic therapy, with the best results seen in patients with early disease. Unfortunately, some patients may not have a complete response to therapy. We currently have three clinical protocols studying patients with Lyme disease. Two protocols are natural history studies and serve as the basis for multiple lines of investigation. One protocols addresses patients with post treatment Lyme disease syndrome. The other protocol allow for the study of patients with classical Lyme disease. A third protocol will examine the host reponse in skin biopsies from patients with erythema migrans lesions using microarrays. Our work addresses 3 areas in Lyme disease: laboratory diagnosis, clinical manifestations and immunological responses to B. burgdorferi.